Grrr.

Now I know its standard practice with all facets of the insurance industry to issue renewal quotes that are more than they would offer to new customers but quite frankly I’m fed up of it. Got my AA renewal quote through and its £56 more than the equivalent I could get signing up as a new customer and if I did that they would chuck me a £30 amazon voucher in to the deal.

My renewal is 33% more expensive than an new customer (or 40% if you take in to account the value of the freebies).

Now I know if I phone up and play my face I’ll probably get the quote down an bit and will get reminded of all the bonuses of being a ‘Silver’ member (that i’ll never need). But it grinds my gears that A) I have to phone up and haggle for it and B) that they send me a renewal letter telling me what a valuable customer I am.

Grr.

Well I’m not playing the game. I’m not wasting my time phoning up, if they wanted my loyalty that badly they would have offered me a better deal to start with so I’ll just keep switching to whoever has the cheapest new customer deal and best freebies.

But first I’m off to complain at them on twitter seeing as that seems to be the done thing.

don’t know why it took me so long to give up on them, but I dumped them, for exactly the reason you mention.. Why should you be loyal to them, if they can’t be arsed to be loyal to you.

Autoaid – my whole premium (for home start for me and the wife in any car) is less than the increase they are giving you…

I use Autoaid, which is about £40 a year for proper cover (any car for me and my wife, including at home). It used to work by you paying for recovery then claiming it back but when this happened earlier this month they got a local recovery company to take me home, then take the car to the garage the next morning, for no cost to me.

Third vote to Autoaid. We had to use them last month (a shredded tyre on an S-Max, i.e. no spare) and they were great.

Cost is lower than the AA/RAC alternatives, for a higher level of cover

Make sure you cancel any direct debit beforehand.

I went through the same scenario with the AA a couple of years ago when the price shot up. Phoned up to make sure the cover was ending and wasn’t being renewed – low and behold the following month the annual sum was taken out of my account!

Had to phone up to get my money back. Half an hour of my life I’ll never get back.

Perfect timing – just had my rac renewal and thought it was time I shopped around. I do it every year with utilities and savings but hadn’t looked at the other stuff.

should add I also moved to Autoaid, and they recovered me twice in my 1st year but didn’t increase the cost of my renewal.

Same here – Joined LV Britannia – much better value. Cue phone call from AA… predictable if nothing else.

I left the AA after 22years, in 2015 they matched an alternative as I said I was leaving, in 2016 they refused so I left, i know it’s insurance but I have never called them out ever.

It can be cheaper if you cover the car instead of the person

Had to phone up to get my money back. Half an hour of my life I’ll never get back.

Was that phoning the AA? Ring your bank next time, tell them the company has screwed it up and they’ll reverse it under the DD guarantee. Will be quicker and more effective than going through ‘customer services’ at any of these firms.

Had about three months of run-ins with Tiscali over some DD misdemeanors. Couldn’t believe how easy it was when I finally realised I could set my bank on them.

I welcome their approach – if they didn’t do the old bait and switch with numpties forgetting to check the renewal cost, I wouldn’t get breakdown cover at a loss leading price by switching every year

Cheers for the tip martin, will bear that in mind from now on

Thanks to the nudge from this thread I’ve been surfing this afternoon and have saved 380 quid on various renewals. Now time to reward my money saving skills by visiting crc…

Yes, I’ve been with Autoaid for 10+ years now, no problem at all, probably quicker each time than AA/RAC – I’ve used them 3 times in that time, one I got a £200+ bill for recovery, was refunded in one week, another time it was £50 and I never got round to claiming., the third, last year was £65, but I didnt pay anything, the Driver said he bills them direct now.

My renewal is 33% more expensive than an new customer

A mix up when I moved house meant green flag duplicated my account with them rather than transferred- so renewal letters were going to both address and auto-renewing if I didn’t intervene. Which obvs with the letters I wasn’t receiving I didn’t.

I didn’t notice the duplication for about 5 years as the premiums were going out of different accounts. Once I did spot it the renewals had crept up nearly 3x new customer price. They had to refund me nearly £1.5k! 🙂

Another AutoAid customer here.
Why pay more?